distance erased with the greatest of ease
by daughter-of-october
Summary: [Characters: Riza Hawkeye, her cousins] # Summary: Most family reunions did not take place in a hospital but the Hawkeye-family had always liked the unusual.


**_distance erased with the greatest of ease _**

* * *

**Characters**: Riza Hawkeye, her cousins

**Summary**: Most family reunions did not take place in a hospital but the Hawkeye-family had always liked the unusual.

* * *

The hospital seemed intimidating and this was strange because she had been in the very same hospital less than a year ago to pick up Havoc after he had been hurt on a routine mission in the western area. (It had been the last time any member of the team had been allowed to go on a mission all one.)

This would not get easier the longer she hesitate and so Riza Hawkeye sighed deeply as she pushed open the door and headed straight for the receptionist. "Excuse me," she said politely as she wondered whether it was really too late to back out. "But … could you please tell me in which room I can find Helena Force?"

The woman behind the counter frowned as she flipped through files. "Mrs Force just underwent her third surgery," she said. "As far as I know, only family is allowed in her room."

"I … I am family," the blonde said, wondering why she had not simply accepted this and left again, sparing herself a meeting that could only be embarrassing and complicated. "My name is Riza Hawkeye, I am not sure whether there's a remark…"

"Ah well, you were just added two days back," the receptionist smiled. "Your cousin is in the Southern Wing, Room 127. The others will be there as well, I guess."

Riza thanked her politely before she slowly made her way up the stairs. It was too late now. She would go through with it even though she had known this when she had gotten into the train. The letter had sounded urgent, _'we are not sure whether she will survive for long'_, and even though she had never heard of this daughter from her father's estranged sister, she _was_ curious.

She knocked twice, sharply and resounding, and opened the door.

_Confusion_.

The redhead who had been smoking on the windowsill, legs daggling outside and the cigarette firmly in her fingers where a golden wedding band glittered, turned her head as she raised her thin eyebrow. "Rena, Nessa? Care to explain something?" she asked, her voice husky, probably from the smoking.

The lean blonde who had been lounging on a chair also turned her head, curiosity written all over the pale face with the deep blue eyes. "I got nothing to say, Kay," she stated with a voice that was far softer and smoother than Riza would have expected after the first sister – because they _had_ to be sisters, it was written all over their faces.

"I tracked down Riza, the daughter of … _her_ brother," an equally blond woman said without lifting her gaze from the magazine she was reading. "Rena, fetch your coat from the chair and let Riza sit down. Seriously, you have no manners."

"You're the one to tell," the redhead – Kay – snorted as she threw her cigarette into the ashtray and rose to cross the room. "Hello," she greeted awkwardly. "I'm Kay, Kay Hamilton. You, um, can call me Kay of course. We are cousins after all. It's nice to meet you."

"Serena, what Kay said," the blonde said as she picked up her coat and laid it down on the table.

Riza instantly realised that she was probably the most silent among them.

"I am Nerissa, the one who wrote the letter," the probably oldest sister said as she waved, a long bang covering her left eye. "And this, uh, is Helena but we always call her Lynn," she added as she mentioned towards the bed where a silver-haired woman lay, motionless and obviously unconscious. "Foolish girl got shot once more and since she seems to plan on keeping this up until she dies one day, I thought that it might be time for a little family reunion … so that we can meet once before we start getting ourselves killed one after the other … even though this sounds really insane."

"You are doing better today, Nessa," Kay said with an amused chuckle. "You actually realised how disturbing your worldview has to be for others. Serena, mark it in the calendar."

"Already done," the blonde said with a snort.

"I am sorry," Nerissa said with an awkward grin. "Um, do you want some fruits, Riza? You travelled probably the entire night and haven't had any decent food in a while…"

Meanwhile, Kay went back to sitting on the windowsill and smoking.

"An apple would be nice," the woman who felt more and more like an intruder replied as her eyes flickered over the still woman on the bed. "What … what happened?"

_"Lynn … is Lynn,"_ Kay said in an attempt to explain. "She's a top-notch medical alchemist, really good at that healing stuff and everything but … she's a little bit unlucky. It's not the first time she was shot … and probably not the last time either. She was walking home after a long day here at the hospital and, well, mugged. We aren't sure why she was still shot after she had handed over all the cash she had been carrying – or why she ever was mugged in first place. Usually, the uniform she wears under her lab coat scares off potential robbers."

"She was just transferred to the hospital," Nerissa added with a shrug, biting into the apple she had grabbed from the bedside table. "She was in Investigation II beforehand but her superior transferred her to a 'safer' unit after she got shot the last time."

"The only reason why Kay ever came from the South was that this time, it was more likely that Lynn would die," Serena said with a shrug. "Nessa and I always take a few days off but Kay is always behind on her paperwork and cannot afford weeks off."

"Don't make me sound that lazy!" Kay said as she nearly fell from the windowsill. "It's like that: I work in International Affairs and with Bradley's current agenda, I end up explaining that our army has no intention to attack Aerugo every other week … and that's troublesome."

"The person who made you head of that department is a fool anyway," Serena said as a smirk curled up her mouth. "Nessa investigated that you are working under Mustang, Riza…"

"You know him?" the blond lieutenant asked as she raised her head. "Yes, he's my boss."

"My superior, Major General Armstrong, always sends me the rough drafts for the letters she has to write to his department. I have to make sure that she doesn't call him _'a lazy bastard who probably slept his way to the top'_ in every third line," the woman said drily. "It's not exactly what I expected when I started working in NorthCity but well, it pays the bills."

"Serena likes to give herself not enough credit," Kay said as her cigarette dangled from the corner of her mouth. "She's a big deal over in NorthCity, Major Hamilton, State Alchemist and basically the only person Armstrong ever talked to without mentioning the law about the survival of the fittest. Rena's not someone who appreciates those things after all."

"So you're a state alchemist?" Riza asked as she raised her eyebrow. Her father would turn around in his grave if he knew that his nieces had 'sold her soul' to the state.

"Like Kay and Lynn, yes," the calm woman said with a nod. "Kay always makes me sound like I am some sort of big deal but she's the one who just got promoted to major general…"

"Because it's not like I deserved that promotion," the redhead said. "I am a paper pusher. I have been doing the same job for five years now and was promoted nearly every year … without doing something. I got nothing to justify why I get such a huge pay. I am notorious for being weeks behind on my paperwork and get a promotion with the justification _good work ethic_."

"This seems indeed a little bit strange," Riza said with a nod.

Serena rose and smoothed her skirt before she headed for the door. "I am going for a walk," she said as she opened the door. "I will be back in a few minutes."

Nerissa also got up from her chair and nudged the unconscious woman. "Stop faking, Lynn," she said amused. "I know that you have been awake since Riza arrived."

A purple eye opened lazily. "Help me to sit up," the woman on the bed said as she stared at the IV-needle on her wrist. "Are they _fucking_ serious?" she snapped.

"You are getting mad again," Kay smirked as she extinguished her cigarette. "And the doctors told you that you should rest, Lynn. You should listen to them."

"I don't listen to clueless idiots," the silver-haired woman said as she leaned against the headboard. "So what? I was shot. Big deal. It obviously didn't kill me and the last two surgeries were unnecessary. It just put an even greater strain onto my body."

Nerissa rolled her eyes as she sat down again after grabbing the pillows and using them to support her sister's weak form. "Lynn's always a huge bitch when she had to undergo surgery she considers as pointless," she muttered into Riza's direction. "Knowing her, she would do all the surgeries herself if she could but that's impossible."

The brown-eyed woman suppressed a giggle as purple eyes pierce her. "Um, hello," she said.

"Riza, right?" Lynn asked as she looked at her sister for confirmation. "It's nice to meet you, even given the circumstances. I would get up and shake your hand but those morons…"

The sniper watched patiently how the injured woman started to rant about the uselessness of her co-workers and the reasons why such treatment had not been necessary. "Yes," she finally said, interrupting the rant carefully. "It's indeed nice to meet you."

"You got me on a bad day," the silver-haired woman said with a small sigh. "Usually, I don't have a habit of running around in hospital beds, believe me. I hope that my sisters didn't disturb you too much – Kay, what did I tell you about smoking in my presence?"

The redhead rolled her eyes. "It calms my nerves and I basically sat outside," she replied. "I know that you hate this habit of mine but please, don't kill me, alright?"

"I will refrain from it this time but please, learn to control this habit, okay?" Lynn snapped as she sent an apologetic smile in Riza's general direction. "I am sorry but they tend to set me off."

Nerissa shook her head and brushed back the strand that had been covering her eyes, revealing an eye patch. Upon noticing Riza's gaze, she shrugged. "I had a tiny little fallout with my mother on the topic of the war and well, she rendered my eye pretty much useless," she explained. "It took Lynn about twelve minutes to fix this mess but it still left a huge scar that … tends to disgust other people because it looks nasty. Usually, I don't wear it when I meet my sisters but well, you wrote that you'd come and I didn't want to give a bad first impression."

"Isn't the eye patch in your way?" Riza asked as she wondered what kind of mother would even try to blind her daughter, her own flesh and blood permanently. "I mean, that looks nasty."

"Oh believe me, I got used to it. The lack of depth perception is less annoying than the blind spot on that side," Nerissa shrugged. "Lynn offers me to look whether she can fix the scar every time we meet but I am fine. I got used to it – and to be honest, it's not like I ever cared about it anyway. Especially since the scar aches shortly before big storms – that's often helpful."

"An … alchemist I know has an automail and he, too, feels it when a rainstorm approaches."

"You said the wrong thing," Kay warned as Lynn grabbed a black notebook from her nightstand. "Lynn is a researcher and she has been trying to get Nerissa to report any little thing her scar does for years before she finally gave in because she can't order her around. To have a state alchemist with the same situation at hand is like a birthday present for her."

"Name, codename and unit, please," Lynn said with a blinding smile. "I'll call him as soon as I get out of here – which should be tomorrow."

"Edward Elric, Fullmetal, loosely affiliated to my unit," Riza replied, wondering why this woman reminded her so much of his father before the research had consumed him. "Say, I am a tad bit curious … I saw Kay's ring … are all of you married?"

"Nerissa is married to someone from the army but refuses to give us a name or a superior," Kay said with a mocked glare at her sister. "Lynn married her childhood friend and has two … bouncy, cheerful little kids who are terrorising their dad at the moment. Serena claims to be single but we think that she might be involved with her partner. As for me, my husband is currently in Aerugo with another co-worker and our daughter is bothering dad and might have burned down the Southern Headquarters by now. How about you?"

"I am single, yes, single," Riza said, maybe a little bit too hasty, and smiled at her cousins.

Nerissa's visible eye widened. "You sound a little bit too much like Rena," she said. "So, let me guess: there is someone but he is probably a part of your unit, like, say, _Mustang_."

"…you are good," the sniper admitted after a moment. "I trust you that you won't say anything?"

"Riza, we are _family_," Lynn said. "And while your father hated our mother more than anything else for what she did, we are different from her. And believe me, Nerissa hates her probably even more than he ever did."

"Nearly losing your eye might do this to you, yes," Nerissa said with a dark growl somewhere deep in her throat. "To cut this discussion short: our mother was a person who deserved the pitiful end she found in Ishbal. She was a terrible mother, cruel and harsh. Our father is a decent person, I even think that he and your father used to be best friends. Our parents divorced shortly before the war – it was for the better of everyone."

There was a sudden harshness in her voice and for a moment, Riza saw her father's features in the pretty face of her cousin, in the face with the eye patch. Maybe this was why her father had never spoken about her cousins, maybe he had known that his sister, cruel as she was, had left many traces in her wake, many injuries that would never heal because they had permanently disfigured a young woman. She wondered whether her father might have liked this woman who was so much like him that it nearly hurt because Nerissa was what Berthold could have been.

"Nessa does not like to talk about this," Serena said, slipping into the room like a snake, and grabbed her coat. "I have to return to NorthCity, someone stirred up trouble over there."

"Translation: today is nightshift and she's stuck with the one she fancies," Lynn said with a smirk surrounding her pale lips.

For a moment, Riza wondered whether this would have been the way siblings were, knowing and teasing. It could have been nice to know her cousins many years before when she had felt caged in her father's house. They might have been like siblings, knowing every little thing about each other and carefully teasing, always caring that nothing left the inner circle. It had to be like this because otherwise, Serena's infatuation with her co-worker would have long been public and she would have been separated from him.

Serena's eye twitched for a moment before she hugged Riza. "Don't let them make you stupid things," she advised before she disappeared in a breeze of salt and sun.

"We ain't that terrible," Lynn grinned as she nudged Nerissa. "Say, didn't you mention that you organised a present for Riza? The Midwinter picture, right?"

"Yes, yes," the blonde replied as she handed over a framed picture. "The little redhead is Victoria, her brother is Nick and the other girl is Laila, Kay's daughter. Um, Kay's husband is Charles and Lynn's is called Martin. They are both pretty cool."

"Thanks," Kay said, a wide smirk on her face. "Next midwinter, Riza, we are celebrating in NorthCity. You are coming too, yes? It would be great for the kids to meet you – and maybe, we can get Lynn to invite Armstrong. She is Vicky's godmother after all, isn't she?"

"The Major General is your daughter's godmother?" Riza asked.

"Yes," the silver-haired woman confirmed. "I was on an inspection up at Briggs when the twins suddenly wanted to be born – I think she banned pregnant women from her fortress afterwards – and I had only one godparent for Vicky yet. So I kind of asked her and she said yes. She is even pretty generous when it comes to presents and keeps saying that Vicky should visit once she's a little bit older … she can be pretty nice sometimes."

"Armstrong's a decent woman," Kay said with a nod. "We are co-workers and when she isn't telling me that Southern Headquarters stole her best man, we are on good terms."

"She wants me to transfer under her command," Riza shrugged.

"She wants me too and for Rena to be working up at the fortress," Lynn said with the same shrug Riza had just performed ever so neatly. "Kay is too high up in the ranks and Nessa's anti-military to the boot. I still think that her husband's in the army."

"Of course he is," Kay nodded. "And probably working at Briggs."

Her sister paled slightly.

* * *

Riza entered the office with a new vigour in her footsteps, she approached her superior's desk with an entirely new face that might be still stoic but there was a new kind of warmth in her eyes, a new way not to smile etched into the corners of her mouth.

"I trust you that your journey was successful?" Mustang asked her.

"More than that," she replied, stepping over to her desk and for the very first time, she placed a personal item on her desk, a photo of the family she had found.


End file.
